Deploying TideSQL (TidesDB+MariaDB) on AWS EC2

published on April 2nd, 2026

In this article we will be deploying TideSQL (TidesDB+MariaDB) on AWS EC2 using the shell script installer, creating a production database user, and connecting.

To find the YouTube video for this article, click here.

Prerequisites

An AWS EC2 instance running Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04 (LTS recommended)
Instance type should be a t3.medium or larger (2 vCPU / 4 GB RAM minimum; r6i.xlarge recommended for production)
EBS gp3 volume, 30-60 GB minimum
Security group allowing SSH (22) inbound from your IP
SSH access via key pair

1. Launch and connect to the instance

ssh -i ~/.ssh/your-key.pem ubuntu@<instance-public-ip>

ssh -o IdentitiesOnly=yes -i "<pem file name>.pem" ubuntu@<instance-public-ip>

The -o IdentitiesOnly=yes flag tells SSH to only use the key you specified and ignore any keys loaded in your SSH agent.

2. System update

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

3. Clone TideSQL and run the installer

git clone https://github.com/tidesdb/tidesql.git
cd tidesql

Run the installer. This handles all dependencies (cmake, compilers, zstd, lz4, snappy, ssl, etc.), builds TidesDB from source, clones and builds MariaDB with the plugin, initializes the data directory, and writes a production my.cnf.

sudo ./install.sh \
  --mariadb-prefix /usr/local/mariadb \
  --skip-engines mroonga,rocksdb,connect,spider,oqgraph,columnstore,sphinx

The --skip-engines flag excludes storage engines you don’t need, cutting build time significantly. RocksDB tends to be the biggest time sink.

Useful options

Option	Description
`--tidesdb-version v8.9.2`	Pin a specific TidesDB release
`--mariadb-version mariadb-11.4.5`	Pin a specific MariaDB version
`--pgo`	Profile-guided optimization (longer build, faster binaries)
`--s3`	Build with S3 object store connector
`--jobs 4`	Limit parallel build jobs (useful on small instances)

The build takes 10-45 minutes depending on instance size. When complete, the installer prints a summary box with paths and connection commands.

4. Start MariaDB

sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadbd-safe \
  --defaults-file=/usr/local/mariadb/my.cnf &

Verify it’s running:

sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadb -u root -S /tmp/mariadb.sock -e "SELECT VERSION();"

5. Verify the TidesDB plugin

sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadb -u root -S /tmp/mariadb.sock

SHOW PLUGINS;

You should see:

| TIDESDB | ACTIVE | STORAGE ENGINE | ha_tidesdb.so | GPL |

If it shows NOT INSTALLED, load it manually:

INSTALL SONAME 'ha_tidesdb';

Quick smoke test:

CREATE TABLE test.t (id INT PRIMARY KEY, v VARCHAR(100)) ENGINE=TIDESDB;
INSERT INTO test.t VALUES (1, 'hello'), (2, 'world');
SELECT * FROM test.t;
DROP TABLE test.t;

6. Secure the installation

Remove anonymous users, disable remote root login, and remove the test database:

sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadb-secure-installation \
  --defaults-file=/usr/local/mariadb/my.cnf \
  --socket=/tmp/mariadb.sock

Walk through the prompts:

Enter current password for root · just press Enter (no password set yet)
Switch to unix_socket authentication · Y (lets sudo mariadb log in as root via OS identity, no password needed)
Change the root password · n (unix_socket is sufficient)
Remove anonymous users · Y
Disallow root login remotely · Y
Remove test database · Y
Reload privilege tables · Y

7. Create a production application user

Connect as root:

sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadb -u root -p -S /tmp/mariadb.sock

Create the database and user:

CREATE DATABASE app_prod;

-- Create a user with a strong password
CREATE USER 'app_user'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'YourStrongPassword!2026';

-- Grant privileges on the application database
GRANT SELECT, INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, CREATE, DROP, ALTER, INDEX
  ON app_prod.* TO 'app_user'@'%';

FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

If connecting over TCP from another host, open bind-address in the config (see step 9) and add port 3306 to the EC2 security group, restricted to your VPC CIDR or application IP.

8. Connect as the production user

Via Unix socket (from the same machine):

sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadb -u app_user -p -S /tmp/mariadb.sock app_prod

Via TCP (from an app server in the VPC):

mariadb -h <ec2-private-ip> -P 3306 -u app_user -p app_prod

Create a TidesDB table and verify:

CREATE TABLE events (
  id    BIGINT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY,
  ts    DATETIME NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  kind  VARCHAR(50),
  data  TEXT,
  INDEX idx_ts (ts)
) ENGINE=TIDESDB
  COMPRESSION='LZ4'
  BLOOM_FILTER=1;

INSERT INTO events (kind, data) VALUES ('deploy', 'initial setup');
SELECT * FROM events;

9. Production tuning

Edit /usr/local/mariadb/my.cnf and adjust for your instance size:

[mysqld]
# -- Network --
bind-address = 127.0.0.1           # change to 0.0.0.0 if app connects over TCP
max_connections = 200

# -- InnoDB (still used for mysql.* system tables) --
innodb_buffer_pool_size = 512M

# -- TidesDB tuning --
tidesdb_flush_threads = 4
tidesdb_compaction_threads = 4
tidesdb_block_cache_size = 1G           # Good to size to ~15-50% of available RAM
tidesdb_max_open_sstables = 512
tidesdb_unified_memtable_write_buffer_size = 256M
tidesdb_unified_memtable_sync_mode = NONE
tidesdb_log_level = WARN
tidesdb_default_write_buffer_size = 256M
tidesdb_default_sync_mode = NONE        # INTERVAL, FULL, NONE

tidesdb_default_compression = NONE      # NONE, SNAPPY, LZ4, ZSTD, and LZ4_FAST

# -- Slow query log --
slow_query_log = ON
long_query_time = 1

Restart after changes:

sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadb-admin -u root -p -S /tmp/mariadb.sock shutdown
sudo /usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadbd-safe --defaults-file=/usr/local/mariadb/my.cnf &

10. Set up as a systemd service

Create /etc/systemd/system/mariadb-tidesdb.service:

[Unit]
Description=MariaDB with TidesDB Engine
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
Group=ubuntu
ExecStart=/usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadbd --defaults-file=/usr/local/mariadb/my.cnf
ExecStop=/usr/local/mariadb/bin/mariadb-admin -u root --socket=/tmp/mariadb.sock shutdown
Restart=on-failure
LimitNOFILE=65535

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

If your default user is not ubuntu, change the User and Group fields to your default user.

Enable and start:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable mariadb-tidesdb
sudo systemctl start mariadb-tidesdb
sudo systemctl status mariadb-tidesdb

11. Add MariaDB to PATH

echo 'export PATH="/usr/local/mariadb/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Now you can simply use:

mariadb -u app_user -p -S /tmp/mariadb.sock app_prod

Summary

What	Where
MariaDB binaries	`/usr/local/mariadb/bin/`
Configuration	`/usr/local/mariadb/my.cnf`
Data directory	`/usr/local/mariadb/data/`
TidesDB data	`/usr/local/mariadb/data/tidesdb_data/`
Error log	`/usr/local/mariadb/data/mariadb.err`
Slow query log	`/usr/local/mariadb/data/slow.log`
Socket	`/tmp/mariadb.sock`
Plugin	`/usr/local/mariadb/lib/plugin/ha_tidesdb.so`

With that, you have successfully deployed TidesDB and MariaDB on Ubuntu EC2, congratulations!

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To learn more about how to use TideSQL check out the TideSQL reference.